Lenten Spring

Clark Greenwood Voorhees, "Landscape, Early Spring"

Psalm 32

For Sunday, March 13, 2011

First Sunday in Lent

If you live in northern climes like here in Wisconsin this can be a hard time of year.  The snow is old, the sky is gray, and both seem to pull downward on one's soul.  We so long for spring to burst forth.  

Western culture can feel much the same way.  Television seems to love to fixate on what is old and gray.  Where are the marks of joy, much less the sublime?  Not here.  Sure, there are the clever Google dioramas that appear periodically on that well-worn home page, but sublime?  No.  

Where then to go?  I can think of no better place than the readings of the Revised Common Lectionary.  As I write this morning I am listening to Gwilym Simcock's "Blues Vignette".  This music sings the song of the longing of my soul this morning.  

As we move today from the lectionary season of Epiphany to Lent, recognize that the Lenten Spring is upon us.  "Spring" is what the word 'Lent' actually means.  The original Latin term was 'quadragesima', which meant "fourtieth day".    Quadragesima was in turn a translation of the original Greek term 'tessarakoste' (εσσαρακοστή).  The idea was to mark the fourtieth day before Easter and to count down from there (1). 

As believers, our faith comprises the very core of our beings around which all else turns.  This is at it should be.  At the center of this core is the death and resurrection of our Lord, the place from which the power of Lenten Spring bursts forth with the rising of the sun in the warming and lengthening of the days.   

What then to do to overcome the gray? Strip away the dead wood to make space for new growth.  How practically might this be done?  Over the centuries believers have identified three key practices.  The first is prayer, in which we celebrate justice toward God.  The second is fasting, in which we seek justice toward self.  The third is almsgiving, in which we seek justice toward our neighbors.  What if this Spring the church worldwide sought justice toward God, justice toward self, and justice toward our neighbors (2)?  A joyous spring indeed this would be.  

So then, to what prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is the Spirit of God drawing your heart today?  Rejoice: these are the marks of Lenten Spring bursting forth.

"While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. . . Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the guilt of my sin. . .   Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.  Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart." 

(Psalm 32, selected)

the blessing of forgiveness

Aivazovsky, "The Ninth Wave"

Fourth Sunday in Lent
Psalm 32

"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven." Think about it: this is true.

Our contemporary world is vexed with tremendous confusion over what constitutes ultimate reality. If the secular humanists are right we are products of an evolution of continuous improvement capable of creating and fulfilling our own purpose. If the radical Muslims are right we are infidels in need of submission. If however the Christians are right we are beings both "majestically created and fatally flawed" (as Francis Schaeffer often said).

The path to salvation is not the self-fulfillment of secular humanism, nor the submission of radical Islam, but something at once much simpler and far more profound: forgiveness. Blessed indeed is he whose transgressions are forgiven.

Is this a blessing you have already claimed? Then rest in it, rejoice, and walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. If not, this offer is so near to you that all you need do is call out, saying, "Lord, forgive me." Your heavenly Father would like nothing better than to honor your request.